Mullberry EXTREME slalom races

yours truly rounding the turn at gate number 1

Okay, so now that I have you attention, the races are on a class II course that isn't that extreme. However, the races are a lot of fun and are a great way to kick off spring here in Alabama.

Hanging out with Bama Boys Charlie Simmons and the infamous T-Bone Pickens

This was the 29th annual Mullberry River Slalom race in a 3 part event known as the Alabama Cup. It's a really chill grass roots event friendly to all levels of kayakers. Thanks to Luke Scott and Zach Nicolas for putting it on this year. We had an excellent race coarse that kept things interesting and challenging, a downriver race, and the first ever King of the Hole Comp; a free for all style freestyle contest where anything goes to stay in the hole with 1o other people trying to knock each other out.

The only results that I can recall off the top of my head are:

championship class
1st place-Luke Scott
2nd place-Zach Nicolas
3rd place-yours truly, Charlie Mix

Down River
1st-Luke Scott
2nd-Jordan Sherman
3rd-???

full results and more info can be found here: http://www.alabamacupraces.com/

First ever King of the Hole Comp

And just like at all kayaking contests, there were hot girlfriends and hippies running amuck

Until next time,
-Charlie Mix

Bariloche, Mansa, Matias is a "bad influence"

Sorry for the ridiculous title but it is deserving, in this update I will show off some cool shots from Bariloche, and talk about how Matias is such a "bad influence" taking "dumb gringos" into the amazing Mansa Gorge.


just another amazing view

First off, Bariloche, I stayed at Refugio Patagonia,


a great hostel with an amazingly friendly owner.


Cheap, easy, and better food then any place in Chile


The brake wall of Bariloche


This place really is beautiful

The Manso Gorge,
First off the logistics are hard, it is a long shuttle and technically it is forbidden to paddle the river. So find yourself a local guide, I was lucky enough to know Matias Nunez from the states and he was more then happy to take me into the gorge. It starts off with a Bang, "the monster" a 40+ foot drop with a very odd hole at the lip, reminded me of a super pissed off Punch Bowl Falls. I came in hot, boofed hard and dove right into the hole, it swallowed me and I remember thinking hang on to that paddle, and then waiting and waiting and waiting for the thaploosh of entering into the landing pool.


Chris Baer at the lip of the "Monster"

The Monster, is an absolutely amazing 40footer, super dynamic and with plenty of hazards. Matias and I finished our high fives and turned are attention to the next seven hours of paddling, scouting, and portaging. It starts off with some stout ledges, intermittent with large pools


Matias Nunez at the lip of one of the first big boofs

Soon the pools turn to more continues rapids and you enter into the "gorge" once in here be careful, there is a stout hole that has dished out some beatings and a rowdy 50ish footer. We ran a chunk of the gorge and then Matias showed me the far left line. With our boats on are shoulders we slowly maneuvered through the dense jungle, trying not to accidental run a big waterfall in the middle of nowhere. After we found the 50 footer we put back in the river and routed through some more great drops.


Matias charging a HUGE hole


Matias cruising threw the triple drop


Matias in the "tricky rapid"

the "tricky rapid" had my number, I came threw a tight slot into a funny backwash, and immediately starting getting spun around. Instead of going with the spin I fought it and found myself momentarily pinned between two huge rocks in the middle of most of the current. I quickly shifted weight and did some kind of miracle paddle stroke and the boat came unpinned, I then got to run the slot in the picture above "switch".


the take out

So the river dumps right into this magnificent lake, If it is sunny out you can usually flag down a motor boat and get towed in. In our case it had been raining all day and there wasn't a sole on the lake. We paddled and paddled and an hour and a half latter we reached the truck, there leaned against the truck was the ranger. Matias looked at me and said don't worry I will confuse him. The ranger and Matias who at this point are on first name bases(Matias actually gave him a fake name and the ranger called him by it, ((supper funny)) started chatting about how it is bullshit that the river is closed, and there is better ways to protect the land. Matias also stands behind a president that the original ranger not only allowed them to paddle the river but often times would drive his motor moat to the far end of the lake and pick up the kayakers. The ranger in turn told Matias he was a bad influence bringing dumb gringos onto the river. Me being the dumb non spanish speaking gringo responded to the ranger's questions with "no Nintendo porfavor" a couple minutes later a fake name and passport number, we were on our way. Matias is truly working hard to try to resolve the access issue on Manso as well as a couple other gems in the area. Until these access issues are sore up, Matias's opinion was to continue to do the runs just be a little sneaky.

Another adventure by Chris Baer

Jay Panther on North American Tour

Hello,

I just got back from my third North American Tour stop in Apex, British Columbia where I got tenth place. I skied okay and jumped really well. I competed my D-Spin 1080 for the first time and had great success. I landed the trick with consistency all week and the judges rewarded it with near perfect scores. It feels really good to bring that trick to contest. My skiing, however, was a little off all week. I have been working some significant changes in my technique and as a result skied slow, especially for me. I am hoping it is a take one step back to take three steps forward, situation.

We are now in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for our fourth and final Nor Am Tour contest. The contest is Thursday and Friday, both days starting at noon, Mountain Standard Time. To watch the contest live go to www.urtur.com, and click on the LIVE link at the top right hand corner. We trained today and the course is great. I am very excited to compete and plan to finally get the winning result that has eluded me all season. Unfortunately, Micheal Kingsbury from Canada has already mathematically won the North American Tour overall, so there will be no U.S. Ski Team spots awarded this season. My next chance to move up the U.S. Ski Team rankings is Nationals at the end of March.

Thank you all for your love and support.

Jay Panther

Summer Paddling wrap up…A little late…

I have finally found enough time to sit down and create a short video of my paddling highlights from last summer. I have been quite busy with school the last few years; having little time for updates and videos. I finished graduate school in December, receiving two master’s degrees: Urban and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture. I can finally have more weekends and weeknight free to paddle!!!!!

Update from last season:

March=Spring Break

I headed to S.L.P Mexico to paddle in the Huasteca with my buddies. There was still a decent amount of water due to an awesome rainy season. I hit some good classic sections of river and ate as much Mexican food as I could stomach…..mmmm guacamole and naranjada natural!

Colorado Paddling:

I decided I would step it up and compete in the freestyle events around Colorado.

My first competition was the Teva Games at the End of May which was one week after school got out and I had only had one day of playboating since last August. I was also demoing the All Star for the second time ever. Considering the background information, I did very well. There were 16 girls in three different heats. I was tied for 8^th after my prelim rides, making the cut for semi-finals the next day. I finished semi’s in 8^th!

I also competed in the Golden Community Rodeo, winning 3 out of the 4 woman’s expert competitions and taking the overall 1^st place in woman’s expert for the 2^nd year in a row.

Lyons outdoor games treated me a bit better. I was very nervous; there were only 6 of us: Adriane, Emily, Elaine, Devon, Ruth and I. I was in sixth after prelims but did better during finals and placed 5^th, with my highest score ever. I was very content.

I hope this year will be much more successful… Last year I only had time to compete, only playing/paddling for fun one or two days a week max. I hope this year I can get out on the water a bit earlier in the season so I am warmed up for the competitions.

December/Jan:

I headed back to Mexico for some family, friends, and paddling time. The water was a tad bit higher than it was in March but still good to go. There are a lot of river sections I hope to paddle on in the near future down there as well as a few secret play spots. Eeeek!

That’s all for now.

A special thanks to WRSI!

Safe paddling!

Christine

Winter Weather!

It has been a cold winter and it does not look over yet! Over winter break some friends and I were able to travel to Colorado to hit the slopes. Paul Butler, Rhett Gulledge and I crashed at our friend Chris Schnusr's place and snowboarded Copper Mountain. Snowboarding in Colorado was amazing, but upon returning home I was surprised to find North Carolina covered in just as much snow. Arriving back at school, I found Appalachian State blanketed in a couple feet of snow. Some friends and I built jumps around campus and had some great times. The previous weekends have provided warm weather and I was able to get back in my boat to paddle the Cheoah. This sparked my desire for summer and I cannot wait to trade in my snowboard for my kayak. I am excited about spring break, for I plan on getting in a fair amount of kayaking. Summer is nearing and it is time to dust off the ole boating gear. You stay classy San Diego, I'm Ty Caldwell?

Unusually warm weather brought a couple of early thaws to the New England area this year. In January a massive rain dump melted several feet of snow overnight. Skiers were bummed, but it was worth it to run Cannibal on the S.B. of the Baker near Mt.Mousilake (photo 1 by Jake). More recently, Richard Sealey snapped this shot of me on Downtown Hair in Lebanon, NH (photo 2). Hopefully the precipitation will keep coming in March and April, because our snow pack is thin.

Road trip part 2, The Gol Gol,

This is actually the second try at the Gol Gol, a couple weeks back we showed up and decided there was way too much water. This time there was just a little less. The team, Kyle, Steven, Jake and I got suited up in our wet gear and hiked in to the first drop. Everyone was tired from the lack of good sleep the night before, (half the group slept in a truck and the other half in a bus stop). After a quick inspection of the first drop no one was interested in a big jungle hike to run a 15 foot boof. We put on below the first drop and cruised threw some fun class 4 towards the next horizon line. The whole run is made up of gigantic pour overs, that lead into class 4, and then back into other giant pour overs. With all of the big drops on this run pouring over it is really important to delay your boof stroke, waiting till the drop truly goes vertical to take that last powerful stroke.


Kyle getting his late boof


Steven dropping into an interesting flume, this thing was cool, both sides of the slide where just exploding, have to find the sliver of water that makes it through


Jake with a big boof

We bombed off a couple drops, and quickly arrived at an especially gnarly looking 30 ft drop. After scouting my line I gave myself a 50/50 chance of being where I wanted to be through the entrance rapid. If I was spot on from there I gave my self a 60% chance of sticking the boof over a nasty hole. To make it worse the hole was recirculating under the right wall, all of this equaled a no go in my head. Everyone in the group quickly came to the same decision and we raised the boats out of the canyon, through the jungle, and put them back in at the base of that very respectable rapid. A quick paddle brought us to the top of the 50 footer. "This thing is immense", easily a 1,000 cfs bouncing threw a narrow slot. The perfect line is through a nasty lead in, over a roller, and down 20 feet where the right side of the current engulfs you. Then you fall another 30 feet into the most aerated landing zone ever. Kyle looked at this drop for just a few minutes, walked up, got in his boat, and paddled into the monster. Kyle had an amazing line, and made this huge drop look really good to the rest of us.


Kyle styling the monster


Steven getting swallowed

One after the next, everyone donated themselves to the massive volume of water, letting themselves get engulfed and flying into the landing zone. In the pool of the landing zone everyone rolled up laughing, "IT FELT LIKE I JUST LANDED IN A CLOUD". As quick as it started it ended, we exited the canyon, jumped in the truck, and rallied back to town for some much need food.


Kyle reflecting on another stout

Chris Baer